1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to machines for slicing products packaged in irregular shapes, and more particularly for slicing in a continuous fashion meat products and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There exists today a variety of types of slicing machines utilized in meat slicing operations which are adapted to accept and slice meat packaged in irregular shapes such as bacon in a continuous fashion. Typically the sliced material is collected by a weighing conveyor belt which weighs the slices and then transfers the material for further processing.
Existing slicing machines do not have totally acceptable provisions for handling irregularly shaped slices which results from either the front or the rear end of a meat package. Typically these packages such as for example bacon bellies have irregular cross-sections at the front and rear ends, and since marketers as well as consumers favor slices having uniform or approximately the same cross-sectional area, the slices from the ends must be separated and segregated from the main body slices prior to further processing. In prior art machines this was routinely accomplished by attempting to trim the front and rear end of each belly either manually or otherwise. This technique is unsatisfactory and oftentimes reduces the efficiency of the machines.
Another disadvantage of the existing machines is that due to the inherent design of the machines and the physical characteristics of the material, when the feed of a slicer was stopped, while a meat product such as a bacon belly, is being sliced, the piece has a tendency to slump or lean forward into the cutting zone so that each time the slicer is stopped, a sliver is produced. Furthermore due to the fact that the slicing operation was momentarily stopped by halting the forward movement of the belly, if this stoppage occurred in the middle of the belly the last slice before the stoppage and the first slice after the stoppage had an uneven, undesirable thickness.